Chapter 2. What is Open Source?

Open source is a relatively new name for a relatively old phenomenon that
is also called "free software". (this term preceded "open source" but it
too came a long time after the phenomenon emerged). I have written
a previous
introduction to this phenomenon which I advise to read if you're not
familiar at all with the term.

To sum up, an open source software is a software that is accompanied with
its original source code and can be freely used, modified, and re-distributed
without any charge. It is possible to charge money for a package that
contains free software components, but generally it is not economical to
base a business on it, because of the fact that it can later on be freely
distributed.

Open source software provides a low-cost, highly customizable, and often
more reliable or technically superior alternative to commercial, non-free
software. The open source world maintains an online web of mailing lists,
web forums, IRC channels, web-sites and other resources with which
people who are more knowledgable in some respects help their less
experienced peers.